So no one told you there’d be days like these?
by Acetoorion
Summary: Kerry has a bad day, but an old friend is there to see her through


Authors Note: Copyright of most characters is for Warner entertainment; I'm just having fun with 'em! The idea is my intellectual copyright, as is the character of Thackarius! This is one of the first things I wrote, and I know it's not exactly stellar as far as plot goes, but I did have fun with it, just take it as a little tongue in cheek! This story takes place around the time when Gabe Lawrence was with the hospital; I loved the relationship between him and Kerry so I wrote this. The relationship between pupil and teacher is an important one, therefore I'm dedicating this to all the people who have taught me throughout the years, I couldn't be where I am now without them.

Acetoorion.

So No One Told You There'd Be Days Like These?

Kerry Weaver struggled down a steep set of stairs amid the teaming throng of people getting of the early morning EL-train. The rain beat down on her and she was soon soaked through. As she struggled with her umbrella she cursed the people who made it for being totally incompetent. Without any warning she was pushed from behind by someone running down the steps; and, with a great lurch in her stomach, she had slipped and felt herself falling, the crutch in her right hand preventing her from grabbing the railings for support. She cried out, desperately trying to keep her footage, but completely unable to do so. She closed her eyes and braced her body for the impact she was sure would soon arrive with pain and embarrassment. Instead she felt the crutch fly out of her grasp and a strong pair of hands grabbed her from behind. She stiffened, feeling slightly naked now that her crutch was nowhere to be seen.

"Kerry? You OK?"

"Gabe." She breathed a sigh of relief, she didn't need anyone else's sympathy. "Thanks, someone pushed me."

"Yeah, I saw. Your crutch went that way," he indicated the bottom of the steps, "you can share my umbrella, I see that yours is refusing to open."

"Thanks Gabe, I'd like that."

_What you mean is, I'll help you down the steps and we can get the accursed crutch, _she thought But she took his arm gratefully and they made their way down the steps. It felt like it was going to be one of those days.

And it was. As soon as she got into the ER everyone was shouting at once. She was soaked though and freezing cold to go with it. Kerry pulled off her coat and headed to reception after dumping it in her locker. But she had barely walked out of the staff room before being stopped by a patient. He was a large man with tattoos on his arms, muscles that looked like they could bend iron bars and a shaved head; he was also a good foot taller than Kerry and all in all presented a rather menacing figure. Kerry was, however, undaunted, she had seen many muscle bound heavies like this one pass through the doors of _her_ ER.

"You a doctor?" He grunted in generic biker fashion.

"Yes I'm head of this department."

"I've bin' waiting to be seen for three hours! I want someone now!"

"It's very busy today, I'm afraid you'll just have to wait like everyone else."

She began to walk away; the last thing she wanted was individual patients thinking that they were the only ones who needed help. But it wasn't going to be that simple. The man grabbed her shoulder and pulled her round.

"Don't you turn your back on me! I want to be seen now!"

"Get your hands off me or I'll call security!" To her relief the man let go of her shoulder, it seemed no one could resist the patented Kerry Weaver Temper. "Now will you please sit down and wait like everyone else."

"But..." The man was beginning to give in now.

"But nothing, you are not the only patient here and I have a lot of work to do. You will be seen in good time. Excuse me." She turned and walked quickly away, not fast enough to miss the man mutter something about gimpy doctors messing him about, but she ignored that, refusing to let it bother her. She was just glad that he didn't grab her again.

Dr. Lawrence watched Kerry deal with the man from across the room. She could certainly look after herself. He was startled from his reverie when the doors of the ambulance bay burst open and paramedics with a stretcher came rushing in headed for resus'. He sped after them, closely followed by Dr. Chen. Lucy looked up hopefully from where she had been sitting at reception filling out some forms.

"You want to help in this one Lucy?"

Lucy nodded in what looked like astonished delight, she had been doing nothing but filing for what seemed like forever, she got up and followed them into resus', positioning herself so that she would have the best view possible without getting in the way whilst the other doctors stabilized the patient.

Gabe looked at his patient, he was foaming at the mouth and jerking violently; there was a lot of blood around his chest, but there was something odd about him, why did the monitors show nothing but slightly elevated heart and adrenalin levels? He voiced his opinions to Dr. Chen, who was trying to establish what kind of seizure the man was having.

"What is going on with this guy!" she asked in frustration.

The man's convulsions were lessening by the time Kerry burst into the room.

"I've just had a priority call from the police. That man needs to be held on suspect of murder, there's a team coming that'll be here in a few minutes to keep an eye on him."

"I don't think he's going anywhere, we could use some help here Kerry."

The mans fitting had stopped and he now lay still on the bed.

"What's the problem?" she asked.

"That's just it, the monitors are all normal."

"Strange." Kerry said, she walked over and put her hand in his neck to try to find a pulse. Another hand, this one with a vice like grip, was suddenly clamped around her wrist. The patient's eyes opened revealing a cold, dangerous stare. Before she could react the man was sitting upright, one arm holding her still with her back towards him, the other holding a gun to her head.

"If anyone of you moves I'll blow her head off!"

Kerry saw Lucy standing with an expression of pure terror on her face, Dr. Chen looked like she had seen a ghost and Gabe looked like he wanted to stab the scalpel he was holding into the mans chest.

"Kerry..." he said. Kerry closed her eyes as she heard the man cock the gun.

"One more word and you can say goodbye to _Kerry._" He said, glaring at the rooms' occupants then focusing his attention back to Kerry. His voice was soft and he had a slight accent that she couldn't place. "Now, Kerry, how about you drop that stick your clutching so desperately and we go for a little trip?"

"I...need it," she faltered.

"You aren't walking anywhere!" He shouted, his voice going from soft to dangerously loud, "this is the last time I'm going to ask. Drop. The stick. Now."

Kerry let her crutch fall to the floor, she caught a glimpse of Lucy who looked like she was about to faint, she hated seeing her med students under this much stress.

"Right, you three, over there" he barked, indicating a corner of resus' with the gun. He then stood and walked towards the door, Kerry in front of him, staggering slightly. He peeped out fervently. "Now, Kerry, where is it this hospital stores their chemicals and drugs? I won't ask twice." He gave her head a painful jab with the end of the gun, which she knew would leave a bruise; the feel of cold metal against the back of her head convinced her that there wasn't much point in procrastinating, especially if he got the idea of hurting the others in the room, and so she pointed to a door at the back of resus'.

"Through there," she sighed, "but it's locked."

"I take it that," he looked at her badge, "as you're head of this department, you have the key, do you not?" Kerry resignedly handed it over and he dragged her to the door and unlocked it. "If I hear any of you move she's not going to be around much longer!"

He pushed her into the room and locked the door behind him. He indicated for Kerry to sit on the floor with her back against a shelving unit of chemicals. Keeping the gun pointed at her he wiped his face with his shirt and took a clean one out of the bag he had kept hidden from the paramedics, Kerry thought wryly that if she got out of this alive she would have to have a word with them about removing the belongings from their patients before they were admitted. He was now removing a bottle from the bag, with a strange translucent liquid inside it. He began to speak, his terrible, soft voice dripping with sarcasm and mockery.

"As you may have guessed I am a terrorist. My name is Thackarius, I live a long way from this country, I am looking forward to going back there once I have finished with my...business here. Unlike the terrorists I have come across here, however, I have a method and a reason for this." He was pacing backwards and forwards, waving his hands and the gun to punctuate his story. "Seven years ago my sister came here in desperate need of an operation that would save her life, she was not given it. She died in pain and without her closest family; I had to watch her suffering knowing that all she needed was a simple operation to save her. They wouldn't give her that simple thing; they said someone else needed it and that we couldn't have it because of an insurance problem. It was this hospital that refused us and it is this hospital that is now going to pay the price!

"Today I killed the man who rejected us, now I am going to destroy this hospital to fulfil my revenge. This morning I planted a bomb in the basement of the hospital, it is the most advanced type of stealth weapon my countrymen have come up with. It will only go off if this little transmitter is exposed to the air," he shook the bottle he was holding, the liquid making watery patterns on the floor as the light shone through it, "of course, it wouldn't do me any good to leave it like that, it will be exposed, but the real genius of it is how it will be exposed. Your part in my plan has now come to pass, you, Kerry, are going to be the detonator." Kerry's pulse quickened and she tired to calm the rising panic threatening to overcome her, he shook the small bottle in her face. "This chip is programmed to be attracted to the unique electrical signals given off by the human heart, once injected into the blood stream it is attracted to the heart rather like opposite poles on a magnet attract each other. Once in the heart it causes all sorts of problems and will have to be removed, thus it is exposed to the air; but I would assume that you know more about that than I do, don't you?"

"P-probably" Kerry choked. This man was mad, dangerously mad.

Thackarius drew a rope from the bag and proceeded to tie Kerry to one of the cabinets, making her sit upright with her legs under her. Needless to say it hurt, and the rope bit painfully into her wrists and ankles. He left her right arm free of the rope, took his belt and put it in a loop round the top of her arm. He gave it a sharp yank, making an efficient tourniquet and, as her blood vessels began to become more pronounced, he took the contents of the bottle into one of the numerous syringes on the shelves adorning the walls of the store room. He took her arm and without a word emptied the contents of the syringe into it before removing the belt and tying her arm to the cabinet. He took some tape and put it over her mouth, making it impossible for her to speak.

He said nothing to her, after his speech he seemed to have shut himself off. Now he made his way to the shelves and selected a bottle of toluene, Kerry saw the sign for 'highly flammable' on the side of the bottle and shuddered as he poured the contents on the floor under the window. She was immediately assaulted by the vile smell of the chemical, and felt dizzy as she tried not to breathe it in, knowing from her training that toluene was carcinogen and caused sensitivity on exposure.

Thackarius looked at the ceiling and knocked the fire detector off, effectively disabling it. He gave Kerry and evil look as he walked past her and shouted through the door.

"You doctors! If you want any chance of saving her I suggest you do an exploratory heart operation!" Giving a short barking laugh he turned back to Kerry and said, "I will now bid you adieu comrade, think of the pain my sister went through when they have to crack your chest; and when the bomb goes off and so many die, think of her then and wonder if a bit of charity could have made such a difference to so many lives!" Kerry felt faint as his words resounded in her head, the room was spinning, and her heart felt like it was missing beats, the last thing she saw before the blackness engulfed her was Thackarius jumping out of the window and a sudden wall of flames springing up from the liquid on the floor.

As soon as they were sure he had gone the others rushed into the room, Dr. Chen grabbed the fire extinguisher and made fast work of the hungry flames. Kerry was out cold and Gabe and Lucy were trying to untie her as fast as possible. They had heard all that Thackarius had said to Kerry, he was obviously an extremely disturbed but intelligent man, unfortunately for him he was not intelligent enough to realize that when people were in the chemical room there either had to be someone in the room with them or the com system connecting to resus' and reception had to be on because of the dangers of hazardous materials. He had accidentally knocked the switch and Randi had heard every word. She had also had the good sense to call a bomb disposal squad, who had been there within ten minutes and had begun to work on the bomb. The police had turned up just as Kerry had said they would, and had surrounded the window, it being the only way he could have got out, they had caught him as soon as he jumped.

There was, however, still the problem of saving Kerry's life. She was pale as death and when they carried her out of the room and hooked her up to the monitors Gabe feared that they might have been too late; but when they gave several reassuring beeps he relaxed and began to work on his former pupil.

Gabe looked down at Kerry sleeping in the starched white hospital bed. She hadn't woken up for the past week and he had spent as much time by her side as his schedule would allow. There was bruising on her face and arm, which would not fade any time soon; her leg was tender and he was glad that she wasn't awake to feel it. They had resorted to exploratory heart surgery to get the chip out; once they had located it they had to keep her alive whilst waiting for the all clear on the bomb, thankfully it wasn't long; at one point her heart had stopped and he had thought it was the end for her, but she had come back. Then it was a case of putting her back together again. He hated to see her like this; it was as though he could feel every wound like a knife through his heart. Suddenly he saw her eyelids flicker, he was immediately holding her hand as she began to come back into consciousness. She looked up at him, confused and disorientated at first, then her eyes opened wide in terror and she tried to move, only to gasp and have Gabe push her down.

"Kerry, Kerry! It's ok, nothing bad happened."

When he saw her relax he began to tell her all that had ensued after she had passed out, including her condition. She was going to be off work for a few weeks and he could see that this did not impress her. Once she began to tire he told her to try and sleep; she closed her eyes for a second, but then opened them again.

"Gabe...thank you for saving me...again."

He wondered what she meant, then remembered the man who pushed her on the steps.

"You're welcome Kerry, any time you need me just ask."

"Yes..." She said sleepily.

"Go to sleep now Kerry, you need to rest."

She didn't reply, she was already fast asleep. He stayed by her side until he was sure she would not wake again. He went to the door of the room and opened it quietly, "I never told you there'd be days like these, did I?" He sighed, why were people like that man alive? He closed the door behind him, leaving her to dream.

Fin.


End file.
